Howard and
Accardi are not your typical friends. They grew up in the same
neighborhood in Somerset. They are both fully committed to their faith
and have wanted nothing more than to be mothers, and great ones at that.
With Howard’s second joy being matchmaking, she introduced Accardi to
the man who would eventually become her husband, Kevin, now the proud
father.
But things
were not always that easy. After enduring a miscarriage from a natural
pregnancy, the trials and tribulations of invitro fertilization and
later an ovarian cancer scare, Accardi was near wit’s end and ready to
accept the fact she may never be a mother.
Running a
day care center out of her house, Accardi soon offered a home to one of
the children (a foster child), 2-year-old Mia, and started the adoption
process. “I thought at the time, ‘Maybe Mia is it,” Accardi admits.
Quietly,
Howard remained optimistic and prayed for Accardi. A mother of three
beautiful girls herself – Hannah, 7, Rebecca, 6 and Sarah, 3 – Howard
knew Accardi “would hold her own baby someday.”
Designing
jewelry is “a new inspiration that has come to me through my faith,”
Howard confesses. A self-proclaimed Christian jewelry designer, her
first piece is a pendant titled “A Greater Love.”
“I am always
inspired through human emotion.” Howard notes, who wrote the prayer
based on the feeling she had after becoming a mother. Although the piece
was designed before Accardi even successfully conceived, Howard waited
until the baby shower to give the bracelet to her. Accardi recalls: “It
was one of the first gifts I opened… everyone had tears in their eyes.
It is so special to me.”
A few
minutes and several comments and tissues later, Howard realized she was
on to something. “I am so passionate about creating this line and seeing
its effect. “Now the prayers and coordinating sculptures keep coming to
her. Although each pendant has a prayer on it, Howard describes them as
“nondenominational.” She adds, “they are for anyone who believes in a
god.’
Part of the
Comfort Wear line, for those who are celebrating a life occasion or
grieving over one, “A Greater Love” shows a woman embracing a baby on
one side and a prayer on the other: “My beautiful child I love you so.
How much I prayed for you. I want you to know. A precious gift from the
Lord up above. Never have I felt a greater love.”
Howard took
a moment to explain the process: she first does a sketch and then has an
artist refine it; simultaneously the prayer comes to her – it usually
rhymes. Everything is done that goes into making the actual pendant and
then Howard does all the finish work on the piece.
Although
Howard has only been designing for about a year, those who have bought
or received one of her pieces as a gift are truly moved and the line is
taking off. “It is beautiful. I am so honored that she made it and that
she was inspired by my story,” Accardi says.
“I have been
getting a lot of orders for Mother’s Day, baby showers and from husbands
to new mothers,” Howard says. “Many women felt that this is how their
mother feels about them.
